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Draenor Untangled

I’ve now had some time playing the Warlords of Draenor expansion and I’ve figured out an efficient and productive way to deal with Garrisons. I should mention that I’m playing with mostly Heirlooms: three pieces of armor, weapons and usually a necklace. And I have Draenor Pathfinder, so my Alts fly from the beginning as they finish the Assault on the Dark Portal event.

I would have preferred to level up to 91 with the Alts before going to Draenor. This would allow the Heirlooms to level up significantly. As it turns out, with Heirlooms you reach 91 at the end or shortly after completing the Draenor Starting Event, and there is enough help during the event that it doesn’t matter a lot whether you are 91 when starting it.

I’ve played three Horde toons through Draenor until 101, which is my goal before entering Legion, again to level up the Heirlooms. Along the way I’ve learned some lessons with Garrisons and with the areas to play to level efficiently.

Grab Treasure Every Chance You Get

Treasure, Bonus World Bosses, and Bonus Events drop Garrison Resources, so grab them. You’ll want to level your Town Hall to level 2 when you can.

This Garrison shows some bad or more expensive choices than necessary. A level 3 Great Hall is not required unless you want to get deep into Draenor leveling. Also a Tavern is not the best choice. Starting Mines and Herb, and a Storehouse are done with a Quest, so they are free. If you want a Bodyguard later above 100, you need a level 2 Barracks. And makes sense to have one Profession building that matches your own – Forge, Tannery or Leather shop. You might want a Tannery if you are a skinner even if you aren’t a leather worker. But be aware that the high level mats – True Iron Ingots, Burnished Hide, Hex Weave cloth – created by the work orders are soulbound so you can’t share with Alts.

The Storehouse gives access to your Bank at level 1 and output of the Mine and Herb garden does not require you have mining or Herb professions. You can share these output across your Alts.

The Lumber Mill is essentially a free source of more Garrison Resources for some gathering in areas that you are doing anyway. You don’ t need to level it beyond 1, however. The Small Timber nodes are available everywhere in Draenor. Check out the map of Gorgrond below for an idea how many nodes there are and they re-spawn surprisingly fast.

Here are some better choices for a Garrison:

Here are my choices for an Alliance Garrison:

After the Faction Starting Area, Go to Gorgrond

I suggest a Lumber Mill as your choice in your Outpost in Gorgrond. This allows you to use a Shredder to gather Treasure. There are lots of treasure nodes with Shredder access. I’ve not tried the Fight Club which gives you a helper to smash boulders to get treasure.

Be sure and take advantage of the Bonus events as you complete this area. Again, I’m using Add-ons for Gathering, Draenor Treasure markers and Wow-Pro for questing.

At the end of Gorgrond, you should be about level 98. At this point you can safely go directly to Nagrand to level most effectively. You may want to go to Taladore or Spires of Arak to do some quest chain for some particular Armor or Weapon skin. I ground one Alt through Spires for a sweet Mace skin and through some Quests in Talador for a Staff skin. And there is a sweet Bow skin in the quest chain.

Draenor is fun to play, and there are a lot of great looking skins for your gear. Of course there are some great Hunter Pets and some super looking mounts. Although most of them are ground mounts. And there will be a lot of grinding to get the 150K Apexis Crystals for that Corrupted Dreadwing mount.

If you are going to grind for anything, then be sure and get a level 2 Barracks when you reach 100. That allows you to have a bodyguard to help out.

Be sure and purchase the Miniaturization Device toy. It will shrink your bodyguard so that it’s out of the way. Of course the damage is not reduced. Also you only need to get it once, since it is account wide as a Toy.